Tackling Problem

The Dolphins Can Only Simulate Proper Way To Tackle In Practice.

DAVIE — They talk about getting their base, coming under control and snapping their hips.

They hone those skills in practice, highly paid professionals working on some of the same fundamentals as the Pop Warner team up the street.

Then the Dolphins take the field, Santana Moss jukes, and they lose their base. Corey Bradford accelerates, and they no longer are in control. Snapping hips give way to snapping necks, watching ball carriers slip away.

At times like these, the basics are not very useful.

"You grab them any kind of way," Dolphins safety Arturo Freeman said.

The Dolphins, in response to missed tackles the past two weeks, have done extra work on it in practice. They had about 18 against Houston in the opener, cut that number in half last week against the Jets but still need to get better at it against the Bills on Sunday at Pro Player Stadium.

But can the Dolphins really do that through tackling drills in practice, going half-speed against teammates? Will the one-two-three approach work when Bills wide receiver Eric Moulds is in the open field, or when running back Travis Henry is bearing down?

The basics are important to practice, Freeman said, but they are not always easy to apply because of the top athletes often carrying the ball.

"Sometimes people criticize the fact that poor tackling, but it is so easy to be running, and a guy gives you a move, and your first instinct is to reach," he said.

Dolphins defensive backs coach Mel Phillips acknowledged that sometimes the object is to "just get the guy down." He said it's difficult to simulate game conditions and all the different types of tackles that must be made.

"There are a lot of things that you have to do that the players have to apply it to the situation," he said. "That is probably one of the hardest things to do, and that is why you have to work on it so much."

And so the Dolphins do the drills.

They work on head-on tackling, angle tackling, open-field tackling and chase ball carriers cutting from outside to inside and inside to out. They tackle one-on-one, and they tackle while shedding blocks.

They wrap up ball carriers that try to spin away, and they come into balance as ball carriers try to shift directions and knock them out of it. They tackle along the sideline and in the middle of the field.

"You name it, we do it," he said.

Dolphins linebacker Junior Seau, in his 14th season, said even an old pro like him can benefit from the work.

"Oh, yeah," Seau said. "Definitely. You have got to go out there and practice. Tackling is taken for granted."

It's also harder to work on it in the modern NFL, coach Dave Wannstedt said. Teams are fearful of injuries to players in whom they've invested millions, and so they don't want to risk much in practice.